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World Press Freedom Day : Cameroon newspaper publishers arm-twist gov’t over plight!
World Press Freedom Day : Cameroon newspaper publishers arm-twist gov’t over plight!
Some leading, mostly Francophone newspapers, are expected to observe a “dead press” day by not publishing in a bid to arm-twist government into taking the plight of the private press seriously.
The decision was adopted at a meeting in Yaounde on 28 April ahead of the celebration of world press Freedom day on 3 May 2020, under the theme, “Journalism without fear nor complacency”.
In a communiqué signed by REPAC on behalf of Cameroonian newspaper publishers, they cited 10 grievances they wanted addressed by the Cameroonian government
The publishers said the government had refused to support the resilience of the private press faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. They pointed to the increased fragility of the press due to the restrictive measures taken by the state in the context of the fight against COVID-19.
The Cameroonian press patrons also bemoaned the late disbursement of aid to private press and the accumulation of payment arrears for services rendered by the press at the public treasury.
They were also not happy that the private press was sidelined in terms of public advertisements and the tax policy was unsuitable them.
They further condemned the arbitrary arrest of journalist in the exercise of their duties and “the maintenance of the deprivation of liberty for press offences in contradiction to the standards and international commitments of Cameroon”.
They threatened to resort to other “energetic actions likely to restore the press to its role of information, education and the barometer of the economy”.
The dead press day option was rejected by some newspaper publishers who thought it was one demand too many after government was taking steps to clean the eligibility process for aid to private press with the elimination of the audiovisual media this time around and the election of representatives on the media aid commission by their peers.
Some publishers also suspected those fronting for the dead publication day as constituting themselves into a mafia to arm-twist the government for their private ends.